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About Chops

Chops is a nonprofit on a mission to improve lives through music education and performing arts. We offer music education to underserved youth and our bands entertain thousands of Minnesotans each year with our free outdoor concerts and parades. Chops also offers fiscal sponsorships to help community-based performing groups reach their full potential. Our core values are integrity, excellence, personal development, community, and entertainment. Chops’ programs are funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Programs: Pan Outreach brings 24 steel drums to Title I K-12 schools in the urban core of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Students learn to play pans and participate in a group performance at the end of each residency. In 2023, we conducted free residencies at 7 low-income public schools, providing 1,200 hours of instruction to 1,800 students. Pan Outreach’s free summer camp is open to all residency students. Our after-school drumline programs operate at 4 inner-city middle schools in St. Paul. In 2023, we donated complete sets of drumline equipment (valued at $10k each) to four schools. As a result of the donated drums, one of the middle schools created a new percussion elective class. In response, we partnered with the Ordway to fund a five-week drumline residency at that school in February 2024. Pan-handlers Steel Drum Band is the premier Caribbean band in our region. Last year, Pan-handlers delighted audiences across the Metro area with dozens of free performances, reaching an audience of approximately 12,000. Tin Cups Steel Drum Band reaches 100,000 Minnesotans each summer at 14 community parades. Tin Cups is an opportunity for players with little or no experience to become proficient at steel drum, and serves as a feeder group for Pan-handlers. ChopsLIVE, our newest performing ensemble, is a DJ drumline band that entertains crowds at festivals and along race courses.

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